Cleaning 101: Cinderella Style

As all of my beautiful readers know, Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday, well not so much this year. I got to spend it alone with my doggies. Since Leia is still in recovery I couldn’t leave them alone for endless hours to join everyone else in Hilton Head for the festivities. So as I walked around the house, I realized it was cleaning day. *Sigh* this was going to be my Thanksgiving, cleaning the house and eating mac n cheese.

I was completely sick of how gross the tile grout looked in the kitchen, yes the house is a rental but jeez I am not living with that nastiness anymore! It wasn’t the greatest when we first moved in over a year ago, but with the added traffic of people and three dogs, yeah it had to be fixed.

If you’re anything like me then you automatically turn to Pinterest…I mean it’s the solver of all household problems. I came across this lovely pin here. I just LOVE the pins that list the steps in the description, makes my life even that much simpler. So of course I have the inspiration now and all of the items already on hand to get scrubbing! When I was explaining to the boys – via texts – what I was doing they were skeptical. They still are in disbelief when it comes to home remedies for anything, especially through Pinterest. I’m pretty sure they think I’m nuts, but after seeing the fix in the floor they can’t argue with me that it doesn’t work.

The floor looks like it is literally brand new tile, during the whole process while I scrubbed on my hands and knees – Cinderella status, minus the singing mice and birds- I was just praying that this would be well worth it. Thank God it was! See below for yourself!

Yeah, I’m pretty embarrassed that’s how awful it was, especially in the high traffic area right in the front of the kitchen. Of course the kitchen table guards a bit from the elements, but all in all I am MORE than pleased. Honestly the “after” photo above doesn’t even do it the right justice. Want to try it for yourself? See below for the instructions!

Directions:

Mix together:

7 cups of water

1/2 cup baking soda

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup vinegar

Notes: Don’t worry, it’s supposed to bubble and fizz when mixed 😉 I also used a scrubbing bristle brush like you use for dishes and did not only the grout, but the tiles as well. I learned that when dried it would leave streaks if I only did the grout – I’m assuming because of the type of tile. So I did the ENTIRE floor, I also had a separate bucket of hot water with a rag to wipe the excess, just to double-check it wasn’t drying with streaks. It took me about 2 hours to do the entire kitchen, thank baby Jesus that it’s the only room with that tile…well our bathroom has it. That’s next on the list!